Henry woke to the delicious smells of frying sausages and cinnamon rolls.
Benny was up and almost dressed. “Hurry! We might not get any cinnamon rolls!”
Henry laughed. “I doubt that. Mr. Singleton knows what a big appetite you have.” But he hurried just the same.
To Henry’s surprise, Dorsey was helping his great-uncle set the table. He put a platter of sausages next to a big bowl of lumpy white cereal. Why was Dorsey being so helpful all of a sudden?
“What’s this?” Benny asked when Jessie handed him the bowl of lumpy cereal.
“Grits. You eat them with butter and salt,” Edward informed him. “It’s a southern dish.”
“Butter on cereal!” But after one taste, Benny ate it all and asked for seconds.
“No walking saltshakers today,” Iona remarked. “And the clock seems to be fixed. Maybe the pranks are finally over.”
Henry watched Dorsey across the table. Were the pranks over because he was going to boarding school the next day?
Violet pulled out the old note. “I just remembered! Look what we found!” She passed the note to Edward.
Slipping on reading glasses, he studied the paper carefully. “Amazing! It’s actually from Harry Houdini! I’ll have the signature verified, but it seems genuine.”
Melanie’s green eyes grew round. “Houdini? You found a note from him? Where?”
“Under a loose floorboard in the attic,” Jessie answered. “It was in a cigar box with some other papers.”
“I wonder how the note got there,” said Dorsey.
“Maybe Captain Singleton hid the note,” Violet suggested.
“Or maybe Houdini himself,” said Henry. “I guess we’ll never know who hid the box under the floorboard.”
“According to this, Harry sent the cabinet and carved tiger to make up for the way he behaved that night at the reception,” Edward said. “That’s a pretty extravagant gesture. But then, Houdini was an extravagant man.”
“Maybe the cabinet is cursed,” said Melanie suddenly.
Everyone stopped eating, forks in midair.
“Cursed?” echoed Iona. “What on earth are you talking about?”
“The night of the party Houdini said strange things would happen in the house — this house,” Melanie went on. “He said he would leave something of himself behind. If he cursed the cabinet, that would be leaving something of himself. He was a powerful magician, after all.”
“Nonsense,” Edward scoffed. “Houdini’s tricks worked because he used mirrors and other devices to fool the eye.”
“But you have to admit, a huge piece of furniture and that ferocious-looking tiger are odd presents,” Iona said.
Edward nodded. “Yes, that part is still a mystery.” Then he turned to Dorsey. “What would you like to do on your last full day here?”
Dorsey stared at his plate sullenly. “Nothing.”
“Of course, we must do something special. Iona will be back this evening. She’s cooking your favorite dinner,” said his great-uncle.
“Which reminds me,” said Iona. “I need to get to the market before I open my shop. See you all later.”
“I have to get to work, too,” said Melanie, taking her plate into the kitchen.
“Our turn to clean up,” Henry offered.
Dorsey scowled. His helpful mood had vanished. “I don’t like doing dishes.”
“Why?” asked Benny. “It’s fun. We can make soapsuds animals.”
First the kids fed Houdini. Edward had bought a wire hutch for the rabbit. As Dorsey played with Houdini, his bad mood disappeared once more, Violet noticed.
Next, Jessie filled the copper sink with hot, soapy water, while Violet, Henry, and Dorsey carried in the dishes. Benny folded the cloth napkins. Dorsey went out to bring in the last serving platter. As he walked back into the kitchen, he suddenly gave a cry.
A deck of playing cards flew over his head!
Everyone stared as the brick of cards sailed into the kitchen without scattering. Then the cards dropped neatly into a stack on the floor by the refrigerator.
Benny ran over to the cards. “Wow! I’ve never seen flying cards before!”
Henry picked up the deck and shuffled them. “The cards aren’t stuck together. I thought there’d be thread or something around them. But they’re loose. Pretty good trick.”
“Is it a whole deck?” asked Violet.
Henry quickly glanced through the cards. “No. The jokers are missing!”
“Who did it?” Jessie demanded. “Who could make those cards fly through the air?”
“Only a real magician,” Dorsey answered. “And the only magician we know who was in this house was Houdini.”
The rest of the day, the Aldens searched for clues about Houdini’s gift. But they didn’t find anything.
Shortly before dinnertime, they went into the laundry room to feed Houdini. Dorsey was sitting on an old rug, holding the rabbit.
“He’s so cute,” said Violet. “Don’t you wish you could stay here and keep him?”
Dorsey put the rabbit back in his hutch. “He’s just a bunny. I bet there are horses at Green Acres School. Horses are way better than rabbits.”
Then he walked out.
“Do you think Dorsey made the cards fly through the air?” asked Jessie.
Henry had been wondering the same thing. “He was just outside the kitchen door when it happened. It’s possible, I suppose. Maybe Houdini isn’t the only magician around here.”
“Not you,” Benny said to the rabbit. “We mean the other Houdini.”
“The rabbit may as well have done it,” said Jessie. “We are no closer to finding out who is pulling these pranks than we were our first day here!”
That night, Iona met the children at the dining room door. She gave them each a small wooden hammer.
“Are we building something?” Benny wanted to know.
“The mallet is your eating utensil,” she said. “We’re having a Maryland crab feast!”
Edward came out of the kitchen bearing a huge platter of steaming crabs. “Will this be enough for you, Benny?”
“Wow!” was all Benny could say.
The Aldens needed a lesson in eating crabs, Maryland-style. Soon they were all whacking the shells with their mallets and pulling out the sweet white meat, which they dipped in melted butter.
For a long time, no one spoke. Then Dorsey asked, “When are we leaving tomorrow?”
His great-uncle looked sad. “You don’t have to be at Green Acres until the evening. We’ll leave around three.”
Dorsey gave his crab a hard whack. “I’ll be ready.”
Jessie glanced at Violet. They both wished they’d solved the mystery before Dorsey left. Tomorrow would be too late.
Soon the paper tablecloth was covered with shells and smears of butter.
“Who wants dessert?” Iona asked. “Cherry turnovers with ice cream!”
Melanie got up. “None for me, thanks. I need to get home and feed my dog.” She looked at Dorsey. “I’ll see you in the morning before you go.”
Dorsey simply shrugged.
She left the room. Iona and Edward headed for the kitchen to prepare dessert.
Just then a wheezing sound made everyone whirl toward the beaded curtain in the corner.
The fortune-teller was moving over her crystal ball.
“Who did that?” Edward demanded. “I didn’t see anyone put a token in the slot.”
“I thought these tricks were over!” Iona said, shaking her head.
After dessert, the grown-ups went into the kitchen to fix their coffee. Dorsey went straight up to his room.
The Aldens were leaving the dining room when Jessie noticed the small white card on the fortune-teller’s brass tray. She picked it up.
“What does your fortune say?” Henry asked her.
“It says, ‘Better leave if you know what’s good for you.’ ” Jessie looked at her brother with wide eyes. “That’s n
ot a fortune. It’s a threat!”
Chapter 9
Out of Time!
“What does this mean?” Violet questioned. “Who is supposed to leave? Dorsey?”
“I think the threat is meant for us,” Jessie announced. “We’re the ones trying to figure out who is pulling these pranks.”
“Let me see that card,” Henry said. Jessie handed it to him. The l in the word leave was wobbly. He started to point this out, but Violet spoke up.
“You know, we found out that the clock and the saltshaker were rigged,” she said. “I bet Madame ZaZa is, too.”
“Let’s check it out,” Benny said.
But at that moment, Iona came in from the kitchen carrying a silver tray with a coffeepot and cups.
“Why don’t you children join us in the parlor,” she said. “Edward has many board games for you to play.”
The Aldens looked at one another. They couldn’t investigate the fortune-teller now.
In the parlor, Jessie pulled out an old-fashioned game with glass marbles. As she set up the board, she wondered if Iona had overheard their conversation. Was Iona deliberately keeping them out of the dining room?
Through the windows, they could see the wind tossing in the treetops.
“What cold, wild weather,” Iona said as Grandfather and Edward entered the room. “A good night to stay in.”
“I’ll light the fire,” said Edward, striking a match to the logs in the fireplace. “See how cozy my house is?”
Iona poured coffee into china cups. “Cliffwalk Manor does have a certain charm, even for its size.”
“Shouldn’t Dorsey be here with us?” asked Grandfather. “It’s his last night.”
Edward shook his head. “I’ve tried everything to make it pleasant for that boy. But he just doesn’t like it here. I can’t understand why he’d rather go live with strangers than with family.”
Violet wondered if Edward had mentioned this to Dorsey. She had a feeling Dorsey’s great-uncle didn’t talk to him very much about personal things. Maybe it was because he was so used to living by himself.
Benny was staring out the window. The moon was full and round over the bay. Suddenly a huge black cloud blotted out the moonlight.
“What is that?” he asked, awestruck.
Edward stared, too. “Those are birds!” he exclaimed. “That has to be the biggest migration I’ve ever seen! Out on the deck, everybody!”
Throwing on coats, scarves, and sweaters, everyone hurried through the French doors. Edward adjusted the telescope, but the enormous flock of birds was plainly visible even without the telescope. Their squawks, tweets, and twitterings could be heard over the wind.
“How many birds are there?” Henry asked Edward.
“Could be a million,” Edward answered. “They’re still flying over. It’ll take twenty minutes at least for them to pass. Dorsey should see this.”
“I’ll go get him,” Violet offered.
She rushed back inside and upstairs to the third floor. Dorsey’s door was closed, as always. She rapped on it.
“Dorsey?” she called. “Your great-uncle wants you.”
The door swung inward. The room was empty.
Violet raced back downstairs and out on the deck.
“He’s not in his room,” she reported to Edward. “I don’t know where he is.”
“He can’t be far,” said Grandfather. “He’s probably in another part of the house.”
Everyone went back inside.
“Let’s split up to find him,” Edward suggested. “You kids look upstairs. We’ll search down here.”
As the Alden kids dashed up the marble staircase, Benny asked, “Do you think Dorsey ran away?”
“I don’t know,” said Jessie. “He didn’t act very happy at dinner.”
First they checked the rooms on the second floor — Edward’s sitting room, Melanie’s workroom, Edward’s bedroom, and the library. No Dorsey.
Next they looked in all the bedrooms on the third floor. Dorsey hadn’t returned to his room and he wasn’t in any of the others.
“Now where?” asked Violet.
Jessie had a thought. “The attic!”
They raced down the hall and thumped up the wooden stairs to the fourth floor. Henry yanked the light string. The dim light cast looming shadows on the humpbacked trunks and dressmaker dummies.
Jessie opened the door to one of the storage rooms. She saw boxes and furniture but nothing else. She was about to close the door when she heard a sneeze.
“Dorsey?” she asked hesitantly.
A voice spoke from behind a stack of boxes. “What?”
The kids hurried over. Dorsey was sitting on the floor, looking through a carton. Houdini the rabbit hopped among books and papers.
“We’ve been hunting all over for you,” Henry said. “Your great-uncle is worried.”
“I’ve been trying to find Houdini’s secret,” Dorsey replied. “The magician, not the bunny.”
Violet noticed a book and photograph among the papers. “That’s the book that was taken from our room! And the photograph I found.”
“They were in this box,” Dorsey explained. “I saw Melanie carry the box up here before dinner. I wondered what was in it, so I came up to find out.”
“Melanie took the book?” Benny said. “Why? It belongs in Mr. Singleton’s library.”
Dorsey shrugged. “I don’t know. I thought maybe I’d find out more about the cabinet that Houdini sent to this house. I didn’t, though.”
Violet had been studying the photograph of Harry Houdini. Now she remembered what it was about the picture that had been bothering her.
“He’s wearing a ring here,” she said, pointing to his hands in the photograph. “But in the pictures in the book, he never has on any jewelry.” She flipped through the book, stopping at a section of photographs.
“You’re right,” said Jessie. “He’s pretty young in this photograph. Maybe after he became a famous magician he stopped wearing rings because they got in the way of his magic tricks.”
“Good thinking,” Henry praised. “He probably didn’t want people looking at his hands too closely when he was performing. I read somewhere that magicians talk a lot while they are performing tricks, to distract people from what they are really doing.”
“It’s called patter,” said Dorsey. “I read about it, too. There’s a book on magic in Melanie’s workroom.”
Jessie and Henry exchanged a glance.
“We didn’t know Melanie was interested in magic,” Jessie said.
“She reads a lot,” Dorsey said. “The book is in a bookcase in her room.”
“We need to tell your great-uncle we’ve found you,” said Henry. “But we can stop in Melanie’s office on the way downstairs and check out this magic book.”
To himself, Henry wondered if Dorsey was telling the truth. Dorsey could have taken the book and picture of Houdini and hidden them in the attic.
Melanie’s room was as messy as they remembered. Collectibles and papers were piled on the floor, on chairs, on the bookcases. Fishing line, thumbtacks, copper wire, and other small items tumbled from the bottom desk drawer.
Dorsey walked over to a table and picked up a small red volume. “This is the book I was telling you about.”
Violet read the title out loud. “Magic Tricks in Five Easy Lessons.”
Henry walked over to the typewriter. The label in the roller read, Ferris Wheels. Again, he saw the l in Wheels was wiggly. Where had he seen those wiggly l’s before?
But Benny had made another discovery. “Isn’t that Melanie’s backpack?” He pointed to a black leather knapsack in the corner.
“Yeah,” said Jessie. “She takes it everywhere. Her car keys are still on the key loop.” She drew in a breath. “Melanie said she was leaving. But she didn’t. Melanie Preston is still in this house … somewhere.”
“People sure disappear around here a lot,” said Benny. “First Dorsey, now Melanie.”
“I didn’t disappear,” Dorsey said defensively, holding Houdini. “I was in the attic.”
“But where is Melanie?” asked Henry. “We looked all over the house when we were searching for Dorsey.”
“We should tell Mr. Singleton,” Jessie said decisively. “He needs to know Dorsey is okay, anyway.”
They ran back downstairs. Edward, Grandfather, and Iona were in the laundry room.
“There you are!” Edward said to Dorsey, relieved. “We were worried about you.”
“I’m okay,” said Dorsey, putting Houdini back in his cage. “I was just … looking for something.”
“We think Melanie is here someplace,” Jessie told Edward. “Her backpack is in her workroom.”
“I don’t understand,” Edward said. “She said she had to go home and feed her dog.”
“I thought she had a cat,” said Benny. “Yesterday she said she had to go home and feed her cat.”
“I bet she doesn’t have either one,” Henry stated. Now he realized what was bothering him. He pulled out the latest card from Madame ZaZa’s booth. “Look at this.”
The others gathered around.
“Notice the l in leave. See how wiggly it is?” he said. “The labels in Melanie’s typewriter have the same wiggly l. And this card is brand-new. The others that came out of the fortune-teller are yellowed and brown-edged with age.”
“Are you saying Melanie typed this fortune card?” said Edward.
“Let me check out one thing first.” Henry went through the kitchen and into the dining room.
Everyone hurried after him.
Henry looked behind the fortune-telling booth. Reaching under, he pulled out a length of nylon fishing line.
“This is connected to the switch in the back,” he said. “It runs along the baseboard, but you can’t see it because it’s clear.” On his hands and knees, he followed the line to the swan chariot. The line was thumbtacked to the underside of the seat.
“We found fishing line and copper wire in Melanie’s workroom,” said Jessie. “We also found a copper wire inside the clock that made it strike at odd times.”
Grandfather examined the line under the chariot seat. “I see. Whoever sits here just gives a little tug and the fortune-teller starts.” He pulled the line to demonstrate. Sure enough, Madame ZaZa whirred into action. “Good work, Henry!”